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Looking for the Purple Cow

A few days back, I finished reading the legendary book called Purple Cow by Seth Godin. It's a very interesting read, that talks about how the traditional forms of marketing are collapsing and how one needs to find newer more innovative ways of reaching out to customers and innovating everything starting with the product. I loved one statement in the book that says, we have everything there is to be had and therefore it is difficult for a new entrant to market a product. It's both true and false in context of India.

When we think of India, we think of only urban India, the 3 percent that pays tax. There is also another 90 plus percent of people who are consumers. They are consuming the local brands most of the time and are keeping the Indian economy running as a self sustained economy. This helps the country against global meltdown as global meltdown usually affects the top 3 percent.

Many businesses have started realising this and have started adapting their businesses a cordingly. The shampoo sachet for Re 1 is one such innovation by the giant HUL. But many are yet to catch up. Penetration of healthcare, insurance, automobiles are still quite low. And that gives us the areas we must focus on. Tailor finance schemes to enable this population to buy. Make films for this population that entertains and connects with them. For the next wave of growth will come from this India. It's their votes that decides the destiny of the country. So as marketeers, we need to be very careful about their changing aspirations and sell accordingly

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